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Storage virtualization with VMware and Microsoft copy offload

VMware and Microsoft support copy offload operations to increase performance and network throughput. You must configure your system to meet the requirements of the VMware and Windows operating system environments to use their respective copy offload functions.

When using VMware and Microsoft copy offload in virtualized environments, your LUNs must be aligned. Unaligned LUNs can degrade performance.

  • Advantages of using a virtualized SAN environment
    Creating a virtualized environment by using storage virtual machines (SVMs) and LIFs enables you to expand your SAN environment to all of the nodes in your cluster.
  • Improving VMware VAAI performance for ESX hosts
    ONTAP supports certain VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) features when the ESX host is running ESX 6.0U3 or later. These features help offload operations from the ESX host to the storage system and increase the network throughput. The ESX host enables the features automatically in the correct environment.
  • Microsoft Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX)
    Microsoft Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX), also known as copy offload, enables direct data transfers within a storage device or between compatible storage devices without transferring the data through the host computer.
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